According to Merriam Webster, the use of the word faith as a transitive verb meaning belief or trust is archaic. Today, we use faith as a noun. Try using it as a transitive verb.
I faith God.
It’s awkward, but using faith as verb gave me a new perspective on faith and its opposite, doubt, which can be used as an abstract noun or an action verb. When doubts are nouns, they are simply ideas. They may exist, but their presence gives us the choice to trust and to believe in God. It is when doubt becomes a verb that there is a problem.
In Matthew 14:29-31 when Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, he followed. Peter trusted, believed, and did the unreasonable. Faith was an action; doubt was a concept. However, when he saw the wind, doubt changed to a deed, faith became a notion, and he began to sink. Jesus caught him and said, “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
We can all relate to Peter. We take a step of faith only to have winds churn doubts to life, transforming them from abstractions to actions, and the One who gave us strength to move becomes an abstraction to us instead of the sovereign God of action he is.
Consider your doubts. Don’t let them become verbs. Let them remain nouns. And even though it’s archaic, let faith be a verb.
I believe God.
I trust God.
I faith God.
This is a very cool perspective. I must remember it. Thank you.
Love it! Thanks for sharing Marissa!
This IS a whole new perspective. I like it very much. It really makes you think about your faith and the way you look at it.
I agree with you.
Maybe Christianity and faith is a bit like riding a bike…you can read all you want about it, think about it all you want…but you’ll never experience it until you take it out for a spin.
That’s a great comparison, Steve.